Mets handling Bay's funk with patience
Jason Bay #44 of the New York Metsruns through first base against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field. (May 31, 2011) Credit: Jim McIsaac
MILWAUKEE -- Eventually, if his malaise continues, the Mets will have to figure out what to do with Jason Bay, aside from writing his name in the lineup on a daily basis. Terry Collins again preached patience before Wednesday night's game at Miller Park, but given the puzzling nature of Bay's prolonged funk, he can't afford to maintain that stance forever at the detriment of his team.
"We watch his practices, we see the bat speed still there," Collins said. "Therefore if there was some concern, where hey look, this guy doesn't have any bat speed in practice, it would be an issue. But he does.
"So I just think it's going up there with a positive frame of mind, getting yourself something to hit and put a good swing on it. The results -- you really can't worry about results. You got to worry about the process."
On that end, there's not much more Bay can do. By now, he probably keeps a sleeping bag and a toothbrush in the batting cage. Dave Hudgens, the hitting coach, spends more time with Bay than his wife.
But there is one avenue the Mets have not explored, and that is Bay's sight, which could be a factor given the dramatic difference in his day/night batting splits. During day games, Bay is hitting .304 (14-for-46) with a .429 on-base percentage. At night, that plummets to .165 (15-for-91) and .243, respectively.
Bay was curious when asked about the splits, but doubted that his eyes were the reason. The leftfielder said he has astigmatism in his left eye, but that hasn't been an issue, and the 32-year-old doesn't wear glasses or contacts. When he was last checked, during his spring training physical, Bay said his vision was 20-20.
Bay did say, however, that the subject had come up, and for the moment, no eye exams are scheduled. But if he and the Mets keep insisting his swing is fine, and Bay keeps slapping ground ball after ground ball to the left side of the infield, something needs to be fixed. Hudgens believes it's more of a mental block.
As usual, Hudgens was impressed by Bay's early batting practice, but that never seems to carry over into the games.
"I would imagine, in the past, Jason's BP sessions probably looked exactly the same as he did in the game," Hudgens said. "But now, the BP has been great. But in the game, he wants to get a hit so bad, he wants to put such a good swing on it, you get that little bit of tension, and then it becomes real tough."
The Yankees had the same concerns about Jorge Posada in 1999 when he was hitting .193 on June 14 and already had 10 passed balls behind the plate. So Joe Torre ordered Posada to have his eyes checked by a Connecticut specialist, just as Bernie Williams, Wade Boggs and Randy Velarde had done.
Posada's sight turned out to be fine, and he finished that season with a .245 average, 12 home runs and 57 RBIs. At this point, the Mets would probably sign on for that from Bay, who entered Wednesday night hitting .212 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 38 games.
"We've also got to realize Jason missed the first two weeks of this season, came back, and swung the bat good," Collins said. "He's in a funk right now. You take those two weeks out of this thing and he'd be basically in the middle of May. Right now as things start to warm up, the weather is going to get better. Hopefully with that Jason Bay will get better."
